Russia's Largest Oil Refinery Shuts Down Almost Half of Its Capacity After Explosion

An explosion that rocked the Omsk oil refinery on Monday knocked out almost half of its capacity, Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the situation. According to the agency's source, the incident damaged and shut down the AVT-11 primary oil refining unit, the most productive at the refinery.

AVT-11 processes 8.4 million tons of oil and 1.2 million tons of gas condensate per year and provides 41% of the capacity of the Omsk Oil Refinery.

According to Reuters sources, the accident could completely stop the hydrocracking process at the plant, since it is supplied with raw materials (vacuum gas oil) directly from AVT-11.

Last year, the Omsk Oil Refinery processed 21.28 million tons of oil and produced 5.07 million tons of motor gasoline (11.5% of production in the Russian Federation), 8.1 million tons of diesel fuel (9.2%) and 1.63 million tons of jet fuel (15%).